Got a computer? Get in the news biz for nothing down, nothing a month.If you have something to say but can't scratch up the bucks to buy your own newspaper or radio or TV station, you can blog (it's short for web log, a continually updated website on whatever is of interest to its author). And some of the bloggers sprouting in Texas are looking at state politics and government, generating new sources of information, gossip, political maneuvering; i.e., everything you used to hear in the traditional media and at the bar or coffee shop after work. Several Texas bloggers have been working the political beat for two or three years, and a batch started, more or less, with the beginning of the current legislative session. Several of the national political blogs are working as businesses, supporting their writers (handsomely, in a couple of cases) and opening a new channel in political media. The Texas blogs don't have the same traffic levels, but they're attracting wider audiences. We did a quick and incomplete survey. Drop us a note if we left out a good one.
Eileen Smith, a former journalist turned legislative budgeteer turned blogger, has started a regular riff on state government at www.inthepinktexas.com with the subtitle "Politics on the Lege of Reason." It's nonpartisan, focused on the Legislature and personalities. Smith worked for House Appropriations and then the American Heart Association after writing for a couple of publications, and hopes the blog becomes a full-time, full-pay job. She kicked it off, officially, this week.
Not everyone in the citizen/journalism racket is signing their work. That's got an advantage and a disadvantage: On the one hand, you don't become a target because of what you're writing. A lobbyist who wanted to tell true stories about the state Legislature, for instance, could do so on a blog without ruining his or her day job. On the other hand, blogs depend in part on running commentary from readers, and sources don't talk to people they don't trust and if you don't know who you're talking to, what's to trust? If you're saying something sharp, and it's a risky thing to say, it's best to know who's listening.
Two new blogs are doing politics the anonymous way. One, called www.pinkdome.com, leans to the left and has some attitude. It's entertaining, so far. And there's yet another blog about Texas government and politics, this one by another anonymous writer who has chosen the name imasuit. That narrows it down to lobbyists, officeholders and people who've been to Men's Wearhouse. The site, called "Inside the Texas Capitol," is more policy-oriented in tone than Pink Dome; the address is texascapitol.blogspot.com.
Several of the political blogs in Texas (we're ignoring the folks from Texas who write mainly about national stuff, the better to focus on state politics) have been around for a while and have developed regular audiences. Charles Kuffner of Houston writes at www.offthekuff.com, and another Houstonian, Greg Wythe, has been at it for a while on his site, www.gregsopinion.com. The blogger at Grits for Breakfast identifies himself as Scott Henson, and says he does "research and writing jobs for a wide variety of clients, from politicians to attorneys to non-profits to government agencies." He's at gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com. The Burnt Orange Report (www.burntorangereport.com), based in Austin, was started by a group of students at the University of Texas. They're Democrats, and three of the four honchos are still in school.
Some are paid, and some haven't gone pro. Kuffner, for instance, takes no money and runs no ads. When he started, he thought he'd write more about sports, but his interests led him to concentrate on politics. Grits has no ads, nor does Texas Capitol. Burnt Orange runs ads, and there are a couple on Wythe's site. Kuffner and Wythe and the guys at Burnt Orange joined up during the last elections to do a "Texas Tuesdays" blog that interviewed House candidates in more detail than any other local media.
And several blogs around the state are designed, apparently, to work in cyberspace in the same way activists work in real space; to pester enemies and build support for some cause or another. Most of the ones we're aware of reside on the left side of the ledger: www.takebacktexas.com is owned by a Democratic consultancy; www.savetexasreps.com was started by Democrats trying to raise money during the congressional redistricting fight and has remained active; www.drivedemocracy.org, another Democratic blog, started with funding from MoveOn.org, the national bunch that itself got going during the presidential campaigns.